Parish-level, Community Prepping

[Walter Maxey]

I'm interested in whether anyone has taken this to the parish level. I have a Mormon friend, and his ward is seriously ready to go at a moments notice. All the preppers in their ward (probably a majority) share their inventory lists. Special skills and special tools are recorded on a centralized list. Their church buys food bulk and sells it to their members--he took me to their cannery. They even have a radio network to send messages across the city if all communications go down.

It sure would be nice to do some of that at our parish. But we just don't have the culture for it.

One thing I thought of was for our parish to sign up for a local medicine distribution program set up by the government.

In the event of an "outbreak," or other biological event, our county health department plans on handing out medicines at the local public schools at so called "Open PODs" (Points of Distribution) open to the public. Most people would have to go stand in long lines waiting for medicine at their local high school to get medicine (long lines and big crowds being a bad thing in such an event).

But the health department is enrolling companies now to be designated "Closed PODs." If an outbreak occurred, the employees of predesignated "Closed POD" companies simply go to work to get their medicine.

I couldn't see any reason why our parish couldn't be a Closed POD.

I learned about all this during a local election--one of the mayoral candidates was heading up this effort. Some very big, very mainstream, recognizable companies have signed up. So maybe this is mainstream enough to suggest to the Parish Council.